Subject Areas |
History and Social Studies
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U.S. History - Civics and U.S. Government |
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U.S. History - Other |
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World History - Human Rights |
Literature and Language Arts
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Biography |
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Essay |
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Time Required |
| Three or four class sessions |
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Skills |
| Using primary sources
Collaboration
Supporting a position with specific evidence
Conducting research online
Writing a position paper |
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Additional Data |
| Date Created: 10/02/02 |
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Date Posted |
| 10/2/2002 |
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The Industrial Age in America: Robber Barons and Captains of Industry
This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: First,
to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance;
… and, after doing so, to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply
as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer… to produce the most beneficial
results for the community—the man of wealth thus becoming the mere trustee and
agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom,
experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or
could do for themselves —From "Wealth," by Andrew Carnegie, North American
Review (1889)
Law? Who cares about the law. Hain't I got the power? —Comment
alleged to have been made by Cornelius Vanderbilt, when warned that he might be
violating the law IntroductionThough
a century has passed since the heyday of the great industrialists and financiers,
debate continues: were these men captains of industry, without whom this country
could not have taken its place as a great industrial power, or were they robber
barons, limiting healthy competition and robbing from the poor to benefit the
rich? Where do we draw the line between unfair business practices and competition
that leads to innovation, investment, and improvement in the standard of living
for everyone? Would the industrial economy have succeeded without entrepreneurs
willing to take competition to its extremes? It
has been argued that we are now in a comparable economic period, the formative
years of the Information Age. Certainly we continue to struggle with similar kinds
of questions about fair and unfair business practices and the benefits and costs
of competition. Does the industrialization of America at the end of the nineteenth
and beginning of the twentieth century hold any lessons for us today? Can market
forces exert sufficient influence to rein in potentially harmful practices or
does government have to intervene? Note:
This lesson may be taught either as a stand-alone lesson or as a complement to
another EDSITEment lesson The
Industrial Age in America: Sweatshops, Steel Mills, and Factories. Guiding
Questions:What various practices of industrialists/financiers
led to their being labeled "robber barons"? "Captains of industry"? In what ways
did such industrialists/financiers harm and/or benefit the U.S. economy and the
quality of life of its citizens? Learning ObjectivesAfter
completing the lessons in this unit, students will be able to: - State definitions
of the terms "robber baron" and "captain of industry."
- List some of the
actions, both positive and negative, of one or more captains of industry/robber
barons.
- Take a stand as to whether a particular financier/industrialist
is or is not a robber baron and support that stand with evidence.
Preparing to Teach this Lesson- Review
the lesson plan. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites.
Download and print out selected documents and duplicate copies as necessary for
student viewing.
- Download the worksheet, Robber
Barons or Captains of Industry?, available here as a PDF file. Print out and
make an appropriate number of copies of any handouts you plan to use in class.
- For concise background information on the industrialists/financiers of
the early Industrial Age in the United States, consult the following resources:
- In this lesson, you and your students
will attempt to establish a distinction between robber barons and captains of
industry. Students will uncover some of the less honorable deeds as well as the
shrewd business moves and highly charitable acts of the great industrialists and
financiers. It has been argued that only because such people were able to amass
great amounts of capital could our country become the world's greatest industrial
power. Some of the actions of these men, which could only happen in a period of
economic laissez faire, resulted in poor conditions for workers, but in the end,
may also have enabled our present day standard of living.
Suggested
Activities
1. Meet Some Real
Robber Barons 2. Robber Barons
or Captains of Industry? 3.
Responding to the Workers 1.
Meet Some Real Robber Barons If necessary,
review with your class the historical context in which the early industrialists
thrived. Use your class text or other classroom resources, or refer to either
or both of the following interactive timelines available on the EDSITEment-reviewed
website Learner.org: Introduce
your students to some individuals for whom the label "robber baron" is universally
regarded as appropriate. Jim Fisk and Jay Gould clearly earned the title because
they did not contribute to building something such as a railroad system. Instead,
they destroyed such systems through clearly illegal actions and disregard for
anyone else. Their actions hurt the economy of the United States. Read their story
with—or to—the class from The
Robber Barons, available on the PBS website,
a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public
Library. Now read with—or to—the class from The
Panic of 1873, also on PBS. Ask students
to explain why Jay Cooke deserves the title "robber baron." Such
behavior as Fisk's, Gould's, and Cooke's clearly fits the criteria for a robber
baron. Tell the class that the label cannot always be applied with such assurance.
What if an action is illegal but leads to a positive end? What if a legal action
ends with many workers or consumers suffering? Part
of the students' job in Part 2, below, will be to evaluate
situations that are similarly ambiguous in the life histories of famous industrialists.
2. Robber Barons or
Captains of Industry? Divide the class
into four student groups (or eight, if you'd like each industrialist/financier
to be researched by two groups). Assign one of the individuals below to each group.
Distribute to the groups the chart "Robber Baron or Captain of Industry?" on page
1 of the PDF file (see
Preparing to Teach This Lesson, above, for download instructions).
Using the following resources and/or any other approved sources available in your
classroom or online, each group should fill in the chart for their assigned individual.
Cornelius
Vanderbilt
I have been insane on the subject of moneymaking all
my life. —Cornelius Vanderbilt
You have undertaken to cheat
me. I won't sue you, for the law is too slow. I'll ruin you. —Cornelius
VanderbiltJ. Pierpont MorganJohn D. RockefellerWhen the
groups are finished with their research, have each present its conclusions and
supporting evidence to the class. Is each assigned figure a robber baron or captain
of industry or something in-between? Which of the individuals' actions were those
of a captain of industry? Of a robber baron? 3.
Responding to the Workers Read with—or
to—the class any or all of the following pieces, available on the EDSITEment resource
History Matters, written by workingmen
and published in newspapers or magazines during the heyday of the industrialists.
How do students believe their
assigned industrialist would respond to these pieces? Either in groups or individually,
have students write a hypothetical letter to the editor in response. Extending
the Lesson - Students with special interest
can read all or part of Personal
Recollections of Andrew Carnegie by Frederick Lynch, published online by the
Electronic Text Center of the University
of Virginia Library, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet
Public Library.
- The
Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site, a feature of the EDSITEment-reviewed
website Links to the Past, offers an inquiry-based
lesson plan about the Vanderbilt Mansion complete with texts, images, and
correlations.
- On June 1, 2000, then—U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno
said this in reference to the controversy over Bill Gates and Microsoft: "America
was not made the industrial giant of the world by the robber barons alone. It
was made the industrial giant of the world by competition, by encouraging new
developments, by encouraging young entrepreneurs to break into the market. It's
the best system I've seen so far." Does Microsoft constitute an unfair monopoly?
Students can read a detailed timeline
of Bill Gates' life from the Bill
Gates Page of Entrepreneurs
and American Economic Growth, a link from Internet
Public Library. They can also read a related editorial
by James Gleick featured on American
History 102: Civil War to the Present, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed
website History Matters. Is Bill
Gates a captain of industry or a robber baron?
- The
Richest Man in America: Andrew Carnegie, available on the American
Experience, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet
Public Library, offers Suggestions
for the Classroom you might want to try.
Selected
EDSITEment Websites
Standards Alignment
View your state’s standards
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